Can the Portland Timbers continue their perfect run against St. Louis FC?

06/04/2024 08:30 PM

(9) Portland Timbers (5,7,5, 20 points) vs (11) St. Louis (3,4,8, 17 points)

Saturday June 8, 2024 KO 5:30 PM PST/ 8:30 PM EST

CITYPARK, Saint Louis, Missouri

Portland Timbers Briefly

I give Phil Neville an A for extra effort. The man simply doesn't give up injecting that positivity to his starting eleven and making all the right moves with his side come game time.

What a game last Saturday night against the Houston Dynamo! Coming from behind and never surrendering despite the control the Texas side had over the Timbers lately, in the end the teams shared the spoils.

Manager Neville has all the right moves in the second half and making notable substitutions with the ideal players and currently the team is riding on good form and maybe they can get lucky next Saturday against St. Louis.

Suddenly, we have a revival in Rose City and the Timbers are responding to the calls of their manager to rescue the team and deliver much needed wins.

The offensive game is amazing and rescuing the team after encountering defensive woes on the field as Kamal Miller cannot do it alone and with Bravo on the field, I don't feel the team connecting defensively.

As the reality of this team is to continue playing with passion and not surrender despite being down on the scoreboard, like the way these did on the road against SKC and recently against the Houston Dynamo.

Finally, manager Neville’s moves are paying off and are keeping this team with its great form and not looking back if they are to make it into the playoffs.

Another challenging game on the road, but with last week’s win at Q2 Stadium against a tough to beat Austin FC at home. For the Portland Timbers, the skies the limit and looking forward to better their record playing as an away team.

Neville has a good school where he learned how to build a winner and at the conclusion of this season, we may see much sought results many of this amazing fan-base, expecting  a top class close of a season.

St. Louis FC Briefly

What a result on the road for St. Louis against Inter Miami and Lionel Messi being on the pitch and in the end, ended up sharing the spoils with a 3-3 draw, and a huge result for this second-year side, posting a very mediocre campaign so far.

For manager Bradley Carnell, this another season and the team has not play to last season’s form where they finished top of the Western Conference.

Unlike their first-year debut when they became the talk of all Major League Soccer after posting a successful campaign, building a team with a lot of German Bundesliga players and the experiment worked wonders for this expansion side.

Time is on CITY’s side and maybe they can build up with new additions in Australian midfielder and defender Jake Girwood-Reich as well picking on a free transfer the likes of German midfielder Cedric Teuchert.

The team still needs to find its winning touch as well looking forward to level its campaign with a few victories that can become their turnaround and make it into the coveted postseason after last season’s early exit against Sporting Kansas City.

Meetings

04/29/2023 St. Louis FC 1-2 Portland Timbers

03/11/2023 Portland Timbers 1-2 St. Louis FC

Forecast

Even series between these two, but the way these Portland Timbers are playing, I predict a win